George Osborne should use £1 billion from the forex fines for an immediate boost to health and care

In a speech to the Labour Party’s East of England regional conference today ahead of the Autumn Statement, Ed Balls said:

“This latest banking scandal shows why we still need big reform and cultural change in our banks. But the fines levied on banks for foreign exchange manipulation should now be used for a wider good.

“And I believe an immediate boost to our National Health Service, which is going backwards under the Tories, must be a priority.

“Because under David Cameron it’s getting harder to see a GP, A&E is in crisis and waiting lists are going up again. £3 billion has been wasted on a top-down re-organisation while nurses and frontline staff have been lost. And cancer treatment targets have now been missed for three quarters in a row.

“So in next month’s Autumn Statement George Osborne should use £1 billion of the fines from the banks for an immediate boost to our health service.

“The Chancellor should act, but we all know only a Labour government can rescue our NHS from the Tories and transform it for the future.

“After the election, Labour will act quickly to raise an extra £2.5 billion a year, on top of Tory spending plans, for our NHS Time to Care Fund.

“This will allow us to deliver 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs. We will guarantee that people will not have to wait more than a week for a cancer test or 48 hours for a GP appointment. And we will repeal David Cameron’s NHS changes that put private profit before patient care.

“Over the last four years David Cameron’s record shows you can never trust the Tories with the NHS. Labour rescued the NHS after years of Tory neglect before and we’ll do it again.”

Share and Enjoy:

Posted November 22nd, 2014 by Ed's team

This entry was posted
on Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 at 12:24 pm and is filed under Shadow Chancellor Blog.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.